Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement; Order for the Production of Documents

by leave—If media reports are to be believed, we currently have the largest free trade agreement this country has seen being negotiated. Those negotiations are due to be finished by the end of this year. It has largely been negotiated in secret over the last four years. It is very important to the Senate, and especially to the Greens and I understand also to the Labor Party and a number of stakeholders across this country that the details of this trade agreement become public. Free trade is often pushed as being important for this country. But there are also risks and costs to free trade. Recently, we saw a chapter leaked by WikiLeaks—only one of 30 chapters—that caused a lot of concern. This is a move to take the politics out of the release of this free trade agreement and to make it available to the public. I move:

That there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Trade and Investment, the final text of the Trans Pacific Partnership plurilateral free trade agreement well before it is signed.